The extensive search launched to find a detainee from the Argentan prison (Orne) has borne fruit: he was arrested on Tuesday July 4 near Angers, shortly before 1 p.m., announced the public prosecutor, Eric Bouillard. The suspect was arrested “gently” in a building under construction in Avrillé, northwest of Angers, by men from the anti-crime brigade, he said.

He should be taken into custody, he added. He is suspected of having killed a 40-year-old woman and a septuagenarian after fleeing while on leave, the Angers prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

Tuesday morning, in the center of the town of Montreuil-Juigné (Maine-et-Loire), many cars were checked by gendarmes who opened the trunks, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse present on the spot. “The gendarmerie is present throughout the city. The city is mobilized behind the police (…) “, wrote on Twitter the mayor of the town, Benoît Cochet.

The 42-year-old suspect has a “dangerous criminological profile,” Eric Bouillard said at a press conference. “I invite the witnesses not to intervene and to contact the police,” the magistrate had said, asking residents of the area to lock their doors. A search notice accompanied by a photo was published Monday evening by the prosecution: it presents the suspect as a man measuring 1.85 m, “of mixed race type, athletic build with curly black hair”.

Convicted of attempted spousal murder

About fifty gendarmes tracked down the fugitive north of Angers. According to Colonel Tanguy Landais, commander of the Maine-et-Loire gendarmerie group, more than four hundred properties have also been checked. The suspect, originally from Reunion, was serving two prison sentences: a criminal sentence of twelve years for attempted murder of a spouse, and a correctional sentence of three years for aggravated property damage.

According to the first elements of the investigation, the respondent, benefiting from an exit permit to obtain administrative documents, took a train after his release from prison in Argentan and would have reached Angers on June 20. On June 22, in the same town, a 40-year-old woman was found dead in her home by neighbors and her two children. She “carries marks on her neck” and “it will be established that she suffered strangulation with her bare hands which led to her death”, explained Mr. Bouillard. The suspect was in the same prison as the ex-companion of this woman. She had also visited him in prison in the visiting room.

On June 28, further north, in Chailland (Mayenne), “a 26-year-old woman who begins a pregnancy will discover that someone has entered her home and will be the victim of an attempted theft of her vehicle and violence. extremely serious, attempted strangulation”. This victim was saved thanks to the intervention of a third party who intervened. The man then fled and took refuge in a vast wood, escaping the device put in place by the police to arrest him, detailed the prosecutor.

On Saturday July 1, around 7 p.m., a vehicle was discovered burning in Cantenay-Epinard (Maine-et-Loire), north of Angers. “The vehicle in question belongs to a person who will be identified on Sunday morning and who lives in Chailland.” The owner, a 72-year-old man, former town mechanic and municipal councilor, was found dead at his home. “The assumption that is made today is that the owner of the car will find his attacker when he returns home,” said the magistrate. “We have a hypothesis that all these facts are linked,” he added.